Pascal's Promoter: Bute No Go; Hopkins or Cloud Possible

By Lem Satterfield

Yvon Michel, promoter for WBC/IBO light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal, says an all-Canadian super-fight with IBF 168-pound king Lucian Bute is not going to happen. Michel reached out to Bute's promoters, InterBox, who showed little interest in the match. He believes Bute's promoters are afraid to take a chance.

"It's difficult to say. But publicly, the owner of InterBox, and the promoter of Lucian Bute have said that they are not interested in moving up to light heavyweight. They prefer to stay at 168. But in my opinion, it's really because they are afraid that Bute will lose and look bad against Jean Pascal," said Michel.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has a fighter who is ready, willing and able to fight Pascal at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Bernard Hopkins advised Schaefer of his interest in accepting the fight. Pascal would love to take the fight. Before anything, Michel has to crunch the numbers.

"We have a letter from Bernard Hopkins' lawyer who said that they would like to have a meeting or a conference call with us to discuss the possibility of a fight with Hopkins," said Michel. "I know that Jean Pascal would be thrilled to fight Bernard Hopkins. But I don't know financially speaking if it's feasible or not."

Hopkins is not the only possible candidate in the running for Pascal. Don King contatced Pascal's agent, Don Majeski, trying to set up a unification with IBF champion Tavoris Cloud. And a rematch with Chad Dawson, who Pascal recently decisioned, is also another option.

"I know that Don King contacted our agent, Don Majeski, of the possibility of a fight with Tavoris Cloud. That's one of the goals of Jean Pascal to unify the titles at some point, so there's a possibility of that as well," said Michel.

"I have a meeting with Mr. [Senior Vice President of Sports] Kery Davis of HBO, and he had expressed interest in the rematch with Chad Dawson. That's another possibility that we could go directly with a fight with Chad Dawson. But we can take a fight in between. So after my meeting with Kery Davis, we'll sit with HBO and we will see what we'll do and what the preference is."

Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here .